


The Life and Times of Lifty and Shifty

by sarahgirl1998



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Career Change, Comedy, Gen, Humor, Sibling Rivalry, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahgirl1998/pseuds/sarahgirl1998
Summary: Former burglars Lifty and Shifty decide that it's time to stop stealing and get real jobs - and so they get one at the video game store. That being said, they've still got a couple of personal problems to work out...Just how much of Lifty's tomfoolery can Shifty take? And can they earn enough money to afford their own house? This story will answer those questions, but not right away.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a couple of weeks since Lifty and Shifty had given up being burglars. The reason they resigned from committing crimes was so that they could regain the trust of the other Happy Tree Friends that they lived with, as well as prove to them they weren't as bad as they were made out to be. That, and they didn't want to go to jail ever again, especially not when Splendid caught them in the act beforehand.

Luckily, the raccoons were able to clear their name and get themselves a new job; one that paid them.

As the cashier of the only video game store in the forest, Shifty was waiting for customers as he usually was. Lifty had gotten a job at the same store, but the most he did was play some of the games they had for sale. He told their manager that he wanted to make sure they all worked, and he just let him do it. However, if Shifty wanted to test one of the games for himself, the manager - he never referred to himself by name, nor did Lifty and Shifty know what it was - would sense him doing so and order him back to the register.

"Welcome to Happy Tree Games. Can I help you?" Shifty asked to the first customer who came in, who turned out to be Nutty. In the squirrel's hands was a copy of Super Mario Party.

"Yeah, I wanna buy this game," said Nutty.

"Fine." Shifty took the game, picked up a scanning laser and ran it over the game. "That'll be $61.99, plus tax."

Nutty took a deep breath, sighed and then pulled out his wallet. "Well, there goes my candy money..." he said to himself. He pulled out a 50, a 10 and two ones, then gave them to Shifty.

"Thank you." Shifty handed the game back to him and watched him walk out of the store. He looked at the money Nutty had paid him, smiled in satisfaction, and then pressed a button on the register to put the money in it.

Not long afterward, Flaky came into the store.

"Can I help you?" Shifty asked.

"Yes, do you have a copy of Yoshi's Woolly World?" Flaky wanted to know.

"Hang on, let me look for it." Shifty went over to the shelf of games that were behind him and started browsing. He didn't find it, however. "Uh, would ya excuse me?"

Flaky nodded, and then Shifty went into the back room. There he saw Lifty playing a familiar-looking game. When it dawned upon him what the game was, he winced.

"Lifty..." Shifty started.

"Yeah?" Lifty paused his game to look at his brother and co-worker.

"I told you not to play the games that everyone's asking for, bro!" said Shifty. "My customer wants that game, you know!"

"Fine." Lifty shut off his game, went over to the Wii U and ejected the disc. Then he put it back in the case and handed it to Shifty. "I was having too much trouble with it, anyway."

Shifty rolled his eyes and went back over to the cash register. He showed the game to Flaky, who smiled.

"This what you're looking for?"

"Yes, thanks." Flaky replied.

Shifty picked up the scanning laser and ran it over the game. "$23.79, plus tax."

Flaky pulled out her wallet, pulled out a 20 and a five, and then handed them to Shifty. "Will this cover it?"

"Yeah, thanks." Shifty pressed a button on the register to put his money in it. Just then, he could have sworn he heard something, and he turned back to the room behind him to call for his brother. "Lifty? You better not be playing one of the new games!"

"I'm not!" Lifty replied, but Shifty didn't believe him.

Shifty turned back to the register to see that Toothy had arrived.

"What can I do for ya?"

"Yes, I'd like a Link amiibo," Toothy said. "I tried looking for one online, but they're so expensive..."

"Of course they are," Shifty snarked. He reached over to the side and pulled out a couple of boxed amiibos. "Adult or Toon?"

"I was hoping you'd have Young Link," said Toothy. "But I'll have Adult Link, thanks."

"Good." Shifty ran his scanning laser over one of the boxed amiibos, but not before putting away the other. "$9.49."

Toothy pulled out his wallet, pulled out a ten-dollar bill and handed it to Shifty. "Thank you, sir."

"Have fun ranking up those Spirits... not to mention trying not to call it Zelda," Shifty commented as he handed the boxed amiibo to Toothy. He chuckled a bit at his joke, then turned and left the store.

The next person who came into the store wasn't someone Shifty knew, but a Generic Tree Friend; a female, mint-green rabbit with a yellow bow.

"Excuse me, can I have Pokemon Ultra Sun?" When she spoke, she sounded like a teenager. She probably was, Shifty figured. "My friend bought Pokemon Ultra Moon in an auction, and I'm kinda jealous."

Shifty turned around to the shelf and started looking through it. "Ultra Sun, Ultra Sun..."

"Yep. It's in that." Lifty closed the game case and put it aside, then picked up another that he opened and checked the inside. "It's in here, too."

He closed this as well and put it aside. The next game he opened just so happened to be the game the Generic Tree Friend was asking for. He'd overheard what she asked for. He opened it briefly, seeing that the game was intact, and then closed it. He got up and went over to the register, then showed her the game.

"Is this what you're looking for?" Lifty asked.

"Yeah, that." The Generic Tree Friend nodded. "I was gonna get Pokemon Sword or Shield, but I didn't think I could battle someone's 3DS game on a Switch."

As she spoke, Shifty took the game from Lifty's hand, then ran the scanning laser over the game. "$45.99."

The Generic Tree Friend pulled out her wallet - which Lifty and Shifty noticed had three stickers of Audrey, Dot and Lotta from Harvey Street Kids on the front - and pulled out two 20s and a ten. Unlike all of the other customers, however, she handed them to Lifty.

"Thanks for finding it for me," she thanked him. "If I catch a Solgaleo, I'll save it for you."

"Nah, that's alright, but thanks." Lifty blushed a bit from what she said.

Shifty sighed to himself and handed her the game, and in less than a minute, she was gone.

"You'll be sorry when you have to run the register someday," said Shifty.

"Don't mention it," Lifty sarcastically replied. Then he went back into the back room to keep checking if the games were in the cases.

For the next few hours, Shifty was tending to the customers that came in. He looked for the games they asked for, scanned them, told them their prices. Someone bought Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for $60.99, another bought Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land for $17.99. Either the games were set at that price including tax, or they were just that desperate to get their hands on it. But Shifty kept on working without complaining, even if he couldn't resist the occasional sarcastic comment here and there.

But finally, at 4 in the afternoon, it was the end of Lifty and Shifty's work day. Unfortunately for them, they had to report to their manager before they could leave.

"More than $350 from seven hours worth of selling games and whatnot?!" He was shocked, but also impressed. "Heck, none of my other employees could make even a hundred bucks!" He wrote a couple of checks - for $90 each - and handed them to the raccoons. They were visibly delighted. "Here's your daily wages. Keep it up and maybe I'll give you a raise."

"Thanks, boss!" they replied.

Then they left the video game store, inserted their checks into their wallets and headed out to their van. As usual, Shifty got behind the wheel and inserted his key into the slot.

"And in case you're wondering, no, we're not ordering anything on the way," Shifty said, as if Lifty had asked. "We got TV dinners at home."

"Alright, fine. But you don't know how much I hate those mini-steaks that have the tendons AND the bones still in them!"

The van pulled out of the parking lot and drove away. Once they'd made it to the bank, Shifty killed the engine and removed his car key.

"I don't think they trust us yet, so I'm gonna have to cash in both yours and mine," Shifty stated.

"Of course you are."

Lifty pulled his check out of his wallet and gave it to Shifty. With that, Shifty stepped out of the car and walked into the bank, while Lifty stayed in the van and waited for him to return. He looked over at the radio and turned it on - and the first thing he heard was the beginning of Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. Lifty's eyes widened in immediate wonder. He'd never heard this song before.

"Oh, my gosh, what is this?" Lifty asked himself. "It... it sounds amazing...!"

And so he listened to it for a couple of minutes. By the time Shifty had gotten out of the bank and stepped back into the van, the song had gotten to what Lifty thought was the best part, starting from the lyric "And I need you now tonight" onward.

"Shifty, you're just in time," Lifty said, "this song was already awesome, now it's gotten awesomer!"

But Shifty just rolled his eyes and placed his car key back into the slot.

"Hey, Shifty, if this song was in the next My Little Pony movie, should it happen midway or in the credits?" Lifty wanted to know.

"How about a deleted scene?" Shifty commented as he started the van. "By the way, I got your money. Good thing that sappy 80s thing took your mind all the way off it."

"It's not sappy, it's awesome!" Lifty said as the van pulled away from the bank and drove off. "Who sings it, Twilight Sparkle?"

"Nope."

"Princess Peach?"

"Of course not."

Lifty thought for a moment, and then came up with probably the least logical idea over who was singing this song.

"Meloetta when she loses against the final Gym Leader?"

"You've got to be kidding me... This is Bonnie Tyler," Shifty corrected him. "You know, it really bothers me that you know NOTHING about who the real singers are. If one of your favorite females was singing this song, then maybe your smartphone would've said so when you asked it!"

"Yeah, maybe," said Lifty. "But allow me to point out, you thought the lead singer of Simple Plan was Sonic the Hedgehog."

"No, I didn't, YOU did!"

"I could've sworn you agreed with me..."

After a few minutes, Lifty and Shifty arrived at their apartment. After he'd made it into the parking lot, Shifty killed the engine and stepped out. Lifty stepped out as well. They entered the apartment, got into the elevator and waited to reach their room.

"Can't we even drive home without you thinking something dumb?" Shifty asked.

"Or you yelling at me over it?" Lifty replied.

The elevator doors opened and they stepped out, then walked into their apartment room. Shifty went straight into the bedroom, where the two coin banks that he and Lifty kept were. Shifty pulled out his $90 and inserted it into his coin bank, the one that had images of Pokemon on it. And then he pulled out Lifty's $90 and put it into the other coin bank, the one that had images of Audrey, Dot and Lotta from Harvey Street Kids for its design. Shifty was hard-pressed not to look disgusted at himself.

"I'll go make the TV dinners," Shifty then commented as he went into the kitchen.

Lifty heard him, but didn't respond; he was already sitting on the couch with the remote in his hand. He and Shifty had only one TV this time; the other three had to be returned to make up for their years of robberies before they could get their jobs a few months ago. Lifty looked through the TV guide, but didn't find what he was looking for.

"Wow. The beginning of the new 20s, and they still haven't put Harvey Girls Forever on TV," Lifty commented to himself. "I'll be glad when we can afford Netflix again..."

Shifty opened up the door of the microwave, put in two TV dinners that he'd already removed the plastic wrapping from and closed the door. He set the timer for three minutes and pushed Start, then waited until they were finished. Only when the timer expired did he take them out and bring them into the living room, along with a couple of forks.

As the raccoons ate their dinner, they watched an episode of Family Guy that had just started. They took their time, but finished before they got to the first commercial break.

"Is it just me, or did the guy who made this forget when it was actually good?" Shifty asked.

"Five bucks says the guy who made the Simpsons did that, too," said Lifty.

After the episode was over, Lifty and Shifty went into their bedroom to plug in their smartphones, the batteries of which had gotten low despite not being used much throughout the day. Not long afterward, Shifty went into the bathroom to take a shower and wash up before bed, while Lifty waited in the bedroom for his turn. After a few minutes, Shifty came out of the bathroom - and almost as soon as he did so, Lifty had already gone in there and started up the shower.

Shifty sighed quietly to himself, went over to his side of the bed and got under the covers. He lay there, thinking about the fact that he had to work again tomorrow. He'd have to go through all of what he'd done today again, and the same would be for the day after until Friday. At least he and Lifty had gotten paid a good amount of money today. Hopefully they could do the same tomorrow.

Just then, Lifty got out of the bathroom and crawled into his side of the bed. Shifty was brought out of his thoughts in the process.

"Someday, we'll have enough money to buy our own house..." Shifty said to himself, but Lifty heard him. "Then it'll all be worth it."

"It sure will be," Lifty agreed.

Shifty yawned quietly into his hand, then took off his hat and reached over to the light. He switched it off, then lay back down and started to go to sleep. "Good night, little bro."

Lifty lay down as well, secretly bringing out a plush toy of Tootie from under the bed and hugging it as he did so. "Good night, Shifty."

The rest of the night from that point onward was quiet - although the raccoons could hear the crickets chirping outside over their near-silent snoring.


	2. Chapter 2

Minutes passed by, a great many minutes. Soon the sun began to rise into the horizon, changing the color of the sky from dark blue to a much lighter shade. Another day had begun for the Happy Tree Friends.

As they had been the night before, Lifty and Shifty were still sleeping in their bed. When Shifty's alarm clock reached six and began ringing, however, both of them awoke. Shifty reached over to turn off his alarm, and then rubbed his eyes as Lifty yawned into his hand.

Shifty stepped out of his side of the bed and headed into the bathroom to take a shower, leaving Lifty by himself. Lifty rubbed his eyes as well, then picked up his smartphone to use it. As he did so, he waited for Shifty to finish washing up so he could take a shower as well.

A few minutes went by, and Shifty had finished with his shower. He'd finished drying off and finished brushing his teeth, too, so he stepped out of the bathroom. As he did so, Lifty went into the bathroom to start his own shower. Shifty took his fedora that had been sitting on one of the bedposts and put it on.

For breakfast that morning, Shifty had some toast and some coffee. He'd finished eating by the time Lifty had gotten out of the shower and dried off, but it was alright; he was usually first when it came to finishing his morning routine, anyway. For breakfast, Lifty had a couple of toaster pastries, his personal favorite even though they weren't too healthy.

Finally, the raccoons were ready for another day of work at the video game store. They made their way out of their apartment room, then stepped into their van. Shifty placed his key in the slot, started the engine and drove away from the apartment building. As he drove to the video game store, he sometimes brought one hand off the steering wheel to rub one of his eyes. His coffee probably hadn't kicked in yet.

When they got to their job, Shifty killed the engine before he and Lifty stepped out of the van. Then they entered the store and got to work; Shifty went in front of the cashier while Lifty went into the back room to test some more games.

"Welcome to Happy Tree Games. Can I help you?" Shifty asked the first Generic Tree Friend who came in.

"Do you have any copies of Super Mario 3D Land?" the Tree Friend asked. "I didn't get a chance to play it when the 3DS came out, but now I'd like to try it."

Shifty turned around and looked through the games that had been behind him. Finally he found the requested game and pulled the case out. He opened it to see if the game was inside, then closed it. He ran his scanning laser over it.

"That'll be $45.99," said Shifty.

The Generic Tree Friend reached into his pocket and pulled out two twenty-dollar bills and a ten-dollar bill. He handed them to Shifty, then took the game as he opened up the cash register to put the money inside.

"Thanks," said the Tree Friend with a grateful smile. "I bet this game will be just as fun as Mario 64."

He then turned and left, while Shifty stayed where he was and rolled his eyes.

"I bet he played that game so much, he forgot there were other Mario games in this world," Shifty muttered to himself.

Just then, he heard something coming from the back room. He left the register for a moment to look inside, but saw Lifty playing Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch.

"Uh, Lifty?" Shifty asked, causing him to pause his game and look up at him. "You do know someone's gonna want that game, right?"

"Yeah, but how can I blame them? It's the best Smash Brothers game ever!" Lifty replied. "Even the Wii U game wasn't this epic!"

Shifty inhaled and sighed to himself in dismay, then went back to the cash register. Giggles had arrived and was now waiting for him.

"Hey, Giggles," Shifty greeted her. "How can I help you?"

"Yes, do you have any Jigglypuff amiibos?" Giggles asked.

"I'll see what we have." Shifty made his way over to the amiibo section, and then browsed through them for a moment. He couldn't find what Giggles was looking for, however. "Nope, no Jigglypuff amiibos. Sorry."

"Oh, it's alright," said Giggles.

"But we do have some Princess Peach amiibos that nobody else wants to buy... at least, not yet."

"Really?" Giggles' eyes lit up.

"Yeah." Shifty pulled out an amiibo of Peach and offered it. "Want it? It's $9.49."

"Well, alright." Giggles reached into her wallet and pulled out a ten-dollar bill, as well as a one-dollar bill. "At least it's better than nothing." She handed her money to Shifty, who placed it in the cash register and gave her the amiibo.

"Thank you, Shifty!" Giggles said as she walked away from him. But Shifty just stayed where he was, looking like he couldn't care less.

"Maybe more of those would be sold if more girls played video games," Shifty snarked under his breath.

"Get off me, dude!" Lifty said from the back room. Shifty could tell he was still playing Super Smash Brothers. "Gimme that hammer! Aw, yeah, take that!"

Shifty had no idea how Lifty was able to get away with playing these games on the job, but it also made him wish he could, too.

A few minutes went by, and Pop was next to enter the store. Unfortunately for Shifty, he'd brought Cub.

"Can I help you?" Shifty asked.

"Yeah, I want this!" Cub said. He held up a copy of Kirby Star Allies that he'd seen when he'd entered the store. "Can I have this, PWEEEASE?"

Upon the word "please," Cub looked up at Shifty with what looked like puppy-dog eyes. Shifty just winced, a bit uncomfortable. He wasn't fond of small children, especially not Cub.

"Kid, are you sure you want this? Kirby may be cute, but it's not all sunshine and stars, you know..."

"Sir?" Pop replied. "I promised Cub I'd get him a new Kirby game today so I wouldn't have to buy him one for his birthday next week. And besides, I'd like to try it myself."

Shifty rolled his eyes and ran his scanning laser over the game Cub wanted.

"That'll be $60.99, sir."

Pop handed him three twenty-dollar bills and a five-dollar bill for his wallet, and then Shifty handed them the copy of Kirby Star Allies. In his delight, Cub started kissing the cover of the game a few times.

"I love it, I love it, I love it!"

"Thank you, sir," Pop said.

He then headed out of the store with Cub, who was still kissing his new game that he held in his hands. Shifty put his own hand to his face.

"This. This is why I don't want to be a parent," thought Shifty. "Kids may be cute, but they're annoying, especially when they're little. Well, at least I got some more cash..."

Luckily, the next person who came in was Lumpy.

"Excuse me, do you have any Mario amiibos?" Lumpy asked.

"That depends. Which one do you want?" replied Shifty.

"I'm not sure. Surprise me."

Shifty reached over to the side and pulled out a generic Mario amiibo, which he ran his scanning laser over.

"That'll be $7.49."

"Okay." Lumpy reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet and removed a ten-dollar bill and a one-dollar bill from it. He handed it to Shifty and took his amiibo with a smile. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Shifty said, flatly.

Lumpy then turned and walked away from him. Shifty then looked over at the other boxed amiibos, looking at their prices.

"We just HAD to lower the prices of the Mario ones just because they're the most common, didn't we?" snarked Shifty. "Shame we don't have any golden ones, otherwise, we'd have so many more dollars on our next paychecks!"

But he managed to make his way back to the register before the next customer, another Generic Tree Friend, had arrived. This one seemed to be about 14 years old.

"How can I help you?" Shifty asked.

"Yeah, do you have Pokemon X?" the Generic Tree Friend asked. "My friend has Pokemon Y and I don't want to feel like an outcast, or whatever."

Shifty turned around, looked through the games that had been behind him for a moment, and finally pulled out a copy of Pokemon X. He ran his scanning laser over it.

"That'll be $45.99," said Shifty. "Do you want Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire with that?"

"No, thanks, I don't wanna have two Pokemon games to take care of." The Generic Tree Friend reached into his pocket and pulled out two twenty-dollar bills, a five-dollar bill and two one-dollar bills. He handed them to Shifty, who put them in the register before giving him his game. "Thanks, dude."

He then made his way out of the game store.

A few hours went by, and Shifty kept on tending to the customers who came in. Just as he did yesterday, he looked for the games they asked for, scanned them, told them their prices. Someone bought Kirby Triple Deluxe for $45.99, and someone else bought Kirby Planet Robobot for the same price. And three different Generic Tree Friends asked for Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, respectively, and they each cost $17.99. The whole time, Lifty kept on testing the games in the back room, even though he wound up playing each of them for almost an hour at a time.

Finally, it was 4 in the afternoon again, and Lifty and Shifty's work day was over. They reported to their manager.

"Well, boys, you've done it again. You've made over $300 in just seven hours!" said the manager. He wrote a couple of checks - this time for $75 each - and handed them to the raccoons. "Here's your daily wages."

"Thanks, boss!" they replied.

They then made their way out of the video game store. They didn't make as much money as they did yesterday, so they both agreed to wait before cashing their checks in. They had a lot of money ready to be spent, anyway, and besides, the checks never expired. They stepped into their van, and Shifty placed his key in the slot and started the engine. Then they drove away from the store.

While Shifty was driving, however, he heard some laughter that he couldn't recognize. Luckily, he was able to ignore it until they got to a red light, and then he looked at Lifty.

"Bro? What are you watching?" Shifty asked.

"Oh, sorry," Lifty said, "I just found this Harvey Street Kids episode called Harvey Girls Tickle Fight. I'm watching it right now."

Shifty just looked at him, not amused. "Let me guess... it's about Audrey, Dot and Lotta tickling each other?"

"Yeah, and it's adorable," Lifty replied with a giggle.

"Well, I'm glad you like it and all, but can't you finish it when we get home? ...Oh, shoot!"

Shifty had just realized the light had turned green, so he proceeded. That being said, Lifty kept watching his episode with the sound on, so Shifty had to hear what was going on. Luckily, he was able to deal with it until they got home.

Finally, Shifty killed the engine and stepped out of the van, then met up with Lifty on the other side.

"You couldn't just watch it with the sound off?" Shifty asked.

"I wanted to hear what their laughing sounded like," said Lifty. "Besides, it's really cute!"

Shifty sighed to himself as he and Lifty made their way into their apartment. Shifty couldn't help but feel like Harvey Street Kids was the only thing Lifty cared about...

When the raccoons got inside, Shifty made his way into the kitchen to prepare their dinners. Lifty, meanwhile, sat on the couch as he watched his Harvey Girls Tickle Fight episode once more. There was something incredibly endearing about seeing Audrey, Dot and Lotta tickle each other that brought a smile of enjoyment to his face. Maybe that was because of how much he loved the Harvey Girls, though.

Shifty opened up the door of the microwave, put in two TV dinners that he'd already removed the plastic wrapping from and closed the door. He set the timer for three minutes and pushed Start, then waited until they were finished. Only when the timer expired did he take them out and bring them into the living room, along with a couple of forks. Thankfully, Lifty was done replaying his episode, and had now turned on the TV with the remote.

The raccoons ate their dinner, watching an episode of Family Guy that had just started as they did so. It wasn't the same one from last night, however; it was the one where Brian and Stewie were going through the multiverse. Lifty and Shifty didn't say anything during the episode, however, probably because neither of them had anything to say.

Once their dinners had been finished, and the episode had ended, the raccoons went into their bedroom to plug in their smartphones. Once again, their phones' batteries had gotten low even though they hadn't been used much throughout the day. Shifty went into the bathroom to take his shower before bed, and Lifty waited in the bedroom for his turn. A few minutes went by, and Shifty came out, and shortly afterward, Lifty went into the bathroom to take his shower.

Shifty crawled into his side of the bed, yawning slightly into his hand as he did so.

"Come on, you can do this," he tried to reassure himself. "You just have to do what you did at work three more times, and then it'll be Friday, and then you can relax."

Soon Lifty came out of the bathroom and crawled into his side of the bed as well.

"You know, bro?" Shifty asked. "You're lucky you get to test all those games. It'd be real cool if I was allowed to do that, too..."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not surprised," Lifty replied. "It's way less boring than having to stand at a register all day."

"Yeah, definitely."

Shifty took off his hat and reached over to the light. He switched it off, then lay down and started to go to sleep. Lifty lay down as well, bringing out his plush toy of Tootie from the night before and hugging it as he did so.

"Good night, little bro," said Shifty.

"Good night, Shifty," Lifty replied.

The rest of the night from that point onward was quiet - although the raccoons could hear the crickets chirping outside over their near silent snoring.


End file.
